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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24112096">Stitches</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SparklingDragonTears/pseuds/SparklingDragonTears'>SparklingDragonTears</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>We all fall down [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Masochistic Tendancies, Medicinal Drug Use, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Post-Sector 7 Plate Drop (Compilation of FFVII), ShinRa Mafia, Stitches, Turks (Compilation of FFVII), Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, partners</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 01:15:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,539</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24112096</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SparklingDragonTears/pseuds/SparklingDragonTears</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Morning after Fog.<br/>Reno stitches up Rude's wounds. <br/>--<br/>Reno pulled out the suture kit and fiddled with it for a moment.<br/>He couldn’t count how many scars he’d memorized over the years, every mistake another line, every heartache another tally.<br/>“I’m not doing this again.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Reno &amp; Rude (Compilation of FFVII), Reno/Rude (Compilation of FFVII)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>We all fall down [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1737655</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Stitches</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Yeah, I dunno. I should be writing my novel. <br/>Enjoy this instead. <br/>-<br/>W: Blood. Unhealthy coping mechanisms. <br/>ShinRa's trying to help them, probably going about it the wrong way.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reno’s head was swimming through the quickly fading fog, now that it was morning. He remembered parts of the night, just enough to know that his partner was back, solid and real and damaged, but <i>here</i>.</p>
<p>He turned to find the man still asleep, dressed in the same clothes he’d been wearing yesterday. He lie on his stomach, breathing heavily. Reno let gentle fingers dance over the bottom hem of Rude’s shirt. He’d bled through onto the sheets overnight and now the dried fabric of his shirt stuck to the trails of blood.</p>
<p>“Shit.” He cursed under his breath, looking over the sheets beside the man. This would be hard to explain when the SOLDIERs came to check on them.</p>
<p>Rude grunted, burying his face further into the pillow. Reno’s touch had woken him enough to turn his face away from the light.</p>
<p>“C’mon, Big Guy.” Reno nudged his shoulder. “Gotta get ya’ cleaned up before they come in.”</p>
<p>Rude groaned, but made no move to rise.</p>
<p>“…here?” Reno asked, a peace offering.</p>
<p>The man’s bald head nodded into his pillow. With a sigh, Reno went to fetch the first aid kit from the bathroom.</p>
<p>He returned to find Rude had moved only enough to rise to his knees. His face was twisted in discomfort as he tried to peel his shirt over his head. </p>
<p>Reno took pity and came up behind him. Setting down the box, he ran soft fingers up Rude’s side in warning, before working toward his back. Rude let his arms fall limp while Reno worked out how to help.</p>
<p>The problem was quickly obvious. Several long gashes stuck to the fibers, which were tugging at the man’s skin.</p>
<p>“Oof.” With a sympathetic hiss, Reno tapped at the skin below the lowest wound. “Fast ‘r slow, partner?”</p>
<p>“Just do it.” Rude’s voice was short, irritated. In pain.</p>
<p>Reno bit his tongue for a second.</p>
<p>“Alright, yo. Count to three.”</p>
<p>Rude sighed, clearly only humoring Reno.</p>
<p>“One-<i>Fuck!</i>”</p>
<p>Reno tugged the shirt free with a wince of his own. Blood oozed from angry red welts all across the man’s dark skin.</p>
<p>“You couldn’t have given me until two?” Rude grunted, falling back onto his face, fists coming up to grab the pillow on either side.</p>
<p>“Ya’ would’ve expected that.” Reno answered offhandedly. His eyebrows sank together in worry.</p>
<p>It looked bad. He had to get to work, he was sure some of the lines were already on the verge of infection, and he knew Rude wouldn’t allow himself a healing spell. Some stupid, twisted sense of penance always kept the man somehow anchored and it killed Reno every time.</p>
<p>The next few minutes were filled with Rude’s sharp breath as Reno dabbed the wounds with disinfectant as delicately as he could manage.</p>
<p>He’d gotten most of the torn skin cleaned up, dried blood wiped away, but there was one particularly nasty wound over his right shoulder blade that he hadn’t touched yet, partially in fear for how he’d even gotten it. If Reno felt it under his fingers, it would make it real.</p>
<p>Rude sensed his hesitation and lifted his head just enough to speak.</p>
<p>“How bad?”</p>
<p>It was still oozing dark blood steadily, edges purple, swollen lines that arched across the rise of bone.</p>
<p>Reno swallowed.</p>
<p>“Stitches.”</p>
<p>Rude sighed shakily. Reno pulled out the butterfly bandages to see how many were in the kit. He looked over the longer gashes which were still shining, but had stopped bleeding. If he stretched them to a couple per, he could close most of the bad cuts, and regular bandages should suffice for the rest if Rude kept from ripping them open.</p>
<p>“I can close up… three big ones.” He got to work, not waiting for an answer. He methodically pulled the skin together, pressing the adhesives into place, trying to focus past Rude’s occasional flinch.</p>
<p>When everything but the awful one was sealed, he sighed. Reno pulled out the suture kit and fiddled with it for a moment. He’d stitched either of them up a dozen times before, but something about the intimacy of this gave him pause.</p>
<p>Just knowing that Rude had done this on purpose, had sought it out and benefited from it in some brutally necessary way… Reno couldn’t bear to consider the <i>next time</i>, when there was no lull of medication to bring down the sharp edges of reality that was already crushing them.</p>
<p>He ran his long fingers over the ends of old scars he found between the bandages. He couldn’t count how many he’d memorized over the years, every mistake another line, every heartache another tally.</p>
<p>At least Tseng cleaned him up before sending him back. And it was only the most severe of crimes for which Miko broke the skin. </p>
<p>Most of those were when Reno had put himself in danger and Rude hadn’t stopped him.</p>
<p>“This has to stop.” He whispered from where he straddled Rude’s hips. He felt the man go still under him.</p>
<p>Reno had always been there afterward, to watch over each angry line, to force his fingers sting the wounds with alcohol, relighting his partner’s torment all over again to make sure they healed. It was his own private torture, since Rude refused to hurt him like he so often deserved.</p>
<p>He felt Rude shiver under his touch.</p>
<p>“I’m not doing this again.” </p>
<p>Before Rude could argue, Reno stuck the needle through the man’s skin, breaking a whimpering groan free from deep in his throat. He worked quickly, efficiently.</p>
<p>He ignored the blood staining his fingers. </p>
<p>Rude’s knuckles were white against the pillow, his shoulders twitching heavily with each pierce of the metal through the already damaged flesh.</p>
<p>When he finished, Reno tied off the thread and pulled out a sheet of gauze and tape, covering the wound to protect the stitches.</p>
<p>He left Rude in silence while he put the remnants of the kit back.</p>
<p>When he returned to the bedroom, he paused in the doorway, looking over his partner. The man was wrecked. He hadn’t moved from where he’d been left. His whole body shook with silent sobs, muffled gasps for air coming through his pillow.</p>
<p>He pushed back the sting in his own eyes and came to sit on the bed beside Rude. His partner dropped the pillow and buried his face in Reno’s thigh. Reno let him cry it out, running his hands down dark, bruised arms as they clung to him, fingers tracing subconsciously over short lines inside his elbows.</p>
<p>If his own face was wet, neither one mentioned it.</p>
<p>When their breathing both slowed to near-normal, Reno lay his head back against the headboard, staring at the far wall.</p>
<p>“He touches you again, I kill ‘im.” Reno said lowly, no bargains or defenses, a real threat this time. He felt the man nod against his leg.</p>
<p>They heard the front door creaking open, the timing a little <i>too</i> convenient. Reno reached down and thumbed the tears from Rude’s face just before a knock rang over the bedroom door. Rude took a deep breath and collected himself. Just as Reno scrubbed the tears from his own face, the door opened, a nervous-looking young SOLDIER poking his head in. Neither bothered to move, it wasn’t like it was some secret what went on with them, now or ever.</p>
<p>Reno scowled at his empty hands.</p>
<p>“No juice today?” He asked, simultaneously terrified and relieved.</p>
<p>The man shook his head, opening the door fully and leaning against the frame. His eyes lingered on the stained sheets for a second, but he finally looked back at them without mentioning it.</p>
<p>“You two are up for appointment in an hour. Better shower.”</p>
<p>Right. Therapists and shit.</p>
<p>“They don’t want you placid to talk, so I’d make it soon than later.”</p>
<p>Reno looked away, knowing the comment was aimed at him, a warning that the meds would wear off by the time he got there.</p>
<p>Rude’s grip tightened on his leg.</p>
<p>“Got it.” Reno answered, trying to keep his voice from cracking.</p>
<p>The SOLDIER nodded and left them in peace. They waited until the front door closed behind the man to move.</p>
<p>Rude finally sat up, wincing at the pull against his skin. He sat up on his knees and reached out to run his fingers over Reno’s tattoos. Reno closed his eyes and leaned into the soothing touch, feeling guilty that Rude was trying to relax him while his skin was probably on fire. </p>
<p>He didn’t bother to argue, knowing that Rude probably felt his sentence was over and it was his turn to step up.</p>
<p>They’d always worked in tandem, no way this catastrophe was going to stop them now.</p>
<p>Reno felt the dread coiling in his stomach, threatening to crash through his mind uninvited, but Rude tapped his cheeks to make him open his eyes. He tipped his head to look at him.</p>
<p>“C’mon, Partner.” He didn’t elaborate. He didn’t have to.</p>
<p>Reno followed him out of bed, forcing his legs to move. He was absolutely <i>not</i> ready to throw himself into whatever hell of a day it was bound to be, but he was willing to let Rude pull him through it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Till next time,<br/>-J X</p></blockquote></div></div>
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